Area orchards often will let you pick your own fruit, but most offer freshly picked produce for sale in their store, too.

Some varieties of apples may be available ...

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If you go

Area orchards often will let you pick your own fruit, but most offer freshly picked produce for sale in their store, too.

Some varieties of apples may be available about a week later this year because of the prolonged winter weather. Call ahead to see if your favorite variety is available before you go.

Curran’s Orchard

Address: 6385 Kilburn Ave., Rockford

Hours: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the weekends during cherry season, and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. every weekend during apple season, as well as 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays during apple season.

Information: 815-963-7848; curransorchard.com

Edwards West

Address: 8218 Cemetery Road, Winnebago

Hours: Opens with the first zestar apple crop in August. Autumn raspberries, pumpkins, acorn squash and gourds will be available through October. Open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Sunday, starting in August. Closed on Thanksgiving.

Going to an orchard for the first freshly picked apple of the season has become a family tradition in the stateline. For many people, that first juicy bite into a crisp macintosh is the unofficial start of a new season — fall.

But why wait until September to visit your local orchard? Many area orchards have great produce available during the summer months as well, ripe for the picking.

Raoul Bergersen, owner of Valley Orchard, a 4,000-plus tree orchard on the east end of Cherry Valley, has fresh produce for customers as early as the end of May.

“Rhubarb is fresh and ready for harvest through mid-June, followed by strawberries through the end of June, and then we get into summer raspberries and blueberries through July.”

Visitors to Curran’s Orchard know when the cherries are about ready for picking when the “Cherries Soon!” sign goes up off of Kilburn Avenue.

“Our tart and semi-sweet cherries become available usually in the first week of July,” said owner Pat Curran.

When fresh fruits start becoming available, people drive in from all over to pick their own or buy the freshly picked fruits.

“I would say that more than 75 percent of our cherry-pickers come from the Chicago suburbs,” estimated Curran.

According to Bergersen, about half of Valley Orchard’s customers are local, but they also get visitors from Elgin, Schaumburg and several other western suburbs.

Most local orchards have pumpkins and gourds that are ready for picking in the fall, too, but the apples remain the most popular seller.

“Zestar are the first apples available for picking in the late summer,” said Mike Edwards from Edwards West.

Edwards West, an orchard that covers 20 acres dotted with dwarf apple trees on Cemetery Road just outside of Rockford, carries 16 varieties of apples that include crowd-pleasers like Gala and Fuji.

“We gather up to 5,000 bushels of apples in a good year,” said Edwards.

For Bergersen at Valley Orchard, his favorite apple is the cameo.

“(It) is what a red delicious should taste like — a terrific eating apple — that becomes available in mid-October. I can’t think of many apples that are better!”

Another popular fruit at Valley Orchard is the golden-yellow suncrisp apple, which also becomes available in October.

It’s not just the apples that draw visitors to area orchards, however.

Hot apple cider and freshly baked apple doughnuts are also popular.

Page 2 of 2 - “25 years ago, when we first opened, our customers stopped by, and their first question was, ‘Where are the doughnuts?’” Edwards said.

Edwards West has a doughnut line and a cider mill on site with fresh treats ready for sale in the fall.

“Sometimes people will call ahead and order as many as 12 dozen doughnuts to be picked up at 7 a.m. for work,” said Curran. “People frequently end up knocking on our door 30 minutes before we open just to get their doughnuts.”

For children, visiting an apple orchard can also be their first experience on a farm.

“We do hay rides and school tours,” said Bergersen of Valley Orchard. “We built the best hay wagon in the area last summer complete with a canopy.”

Edwards West offers a friendly, furry mascot.

“Bella is our Bernese Mountain Dog, and she’s super friendly and great with kids,” said Edwards who recently added a sidekick, Dakota, a new Bernese puppy. They also offer a special play area for kids at the orchard.

Curran’s Orchard offers a corn tunnel and a mini-maze for the kids.

“It’s always fun to look outside and see the kids playing on the hay bales, mom and dad sipping cider and sharing a doughnut. We look outside and see that people are happy,” said Curran. “And it’s always better when apples are on the trees.”